Five tips to reduce the costs of low productivity

10 Oct 2011

In our joint report with BITC, Managing Presenteeism, Centre for Mental Health calculated that presenteeism (or reduced productivity) from mental ill health alone costs the UK economy £15.1 billion per annum, more than double that of absenteeism.

Research shows that presenteeism is hugely costly to employers, but all too often ignored. Managing it well not only saves money in both the short and longer term, but also contributes to the development of an engaged and productive workforce.

Here are our top five tips to help organisations manage presenteeism:

1. Build a resilient organisation

Culture has a strong influence on health and wellbeing. These include job control and design, a feeling of being treated fairly and job security. Some organisations develop cultures of absenteeism or presenteeism which have a detrimental effect on productivity.

In the present economic climate, it is unlikely that many organisations can provide guarantees on job security, but there are actions they can take to minimise any threat to the health and wellbeing of employees.

ACTION: Organisations should ensure that all their employees are treated fairly and that managers understand how to administer corporate policies in an equitable manner.

Organisations need to be aware of any cultural trends towards absenteeism or presenteeism and be prepared to address them. Organisations can minimise the potential damage of job loss to employees by being open and honest about their own financial position and by providing employees with transferable skills to improve their prospects in the job market. In addition, when redundancies have to take place, organisations can provide outplacement support to assist employees in finding alternative employment. Putting these in place will not only minimise the risks of ill health but will also help boost employee engagement.

2. Make it possible to talk about health in the workplace

Employees with health problems often do not receive support in the workplace as they feel unable to disclose these problems to their manager, nor are managers trained how to respond if they do. In addition, employees may not know how to manage their health conditions or how to support colleagues with health problems. Many of life’s challenges – family issues, financial difficulties, job insecurity – can contribute to presenteeism. Organisational stressors can be minimised through good work design and good management, but work pressure cannot and should not be totally eliminated.

ACTION: Training and awareness raising should be provided for both managers and employees so that they can have a better understanding of health in the workplace, including actions they can take themselves. This will also help to reduce the stigmatising of health conditions like depression, and will facilitate a more open approach to disclosing health conditions.

In financially challenging times, training employees to manage their personal finances can be beneficial and staff could also be offered resilience training to help build their personal resources.

3. Identify emerging mental health problems early on

Depression and anxiety are more likely to lead to presenteeism than absenteeism. Line managers and supervisors need to be able to recognise and understand the signs of distress, recognise that performance issues may be health-related and be confident enough to have a supportive conversation with an employee.

ACTION: Managers should be trained to identify the early warning signs of common mental health problems in the workplace to help them to intervene as early as possible and to speak supportively with employees who are experiencing difficulties. Workplace training (formerly known as Impact on Depression) offered by Centre for Mental Health, has been shown to increase managers’ willingness and confidence to support employees with common mental health conditions.

Managers’ competences should also include understanding the role that work and organisational factors can play in enhancing or damaging mental health and the people skills to promote positive engagement and wellbeing.

4. Promote the flexible management of sickness absence

Sickness absence and presenteeism are to some degree substitutes for each other and the main consequence of bearing down on the former is likely to be an increase in the latter. A low level of absence is not necessarily a sign of good management.

Aggressive absence policies can do more harm than good, particularly those with fixed trigger points for a certain number of absence episodes that lead to disciplinary action. They can lead to presenteeism which may subsequently result in higher levels of sickness absence in the longer term and reduced productivity.

ACTION: Ensure that absence management policies are flexible and that managers are trained and supported in implementing them. Managers should be clear about any flexibilities or areas of managerial discretion that they can utilise to manage an employee with a health problem. Where there is a longer period of absence, make sure that the return to work is planned with all relevant parties. Be extra vigilant about employee wellbeing during periods of downsizing and restructuring.

5. Manage the problem, not the symptoms

Both sickness absence and presenteeism are symptoms of an underlying health problem. Good management of ill health in the workplace consists of minimising the risks and the adverse consequences of poor health, both for the individual and for the organisation.

ACTION: Develop a health and wellbeing strategy that deals with all aspects of employee wellbeing and tackles both presenteeism and absenteeism, not just the symptoms of when things go wrong.

Take a look at these resources for employers on managing mental ill health at work.